Pondering supplementing my lack of income...

I'm between jobs, unemployment out, and need to supplement my income stream. Minimum wage will not really help, so I'm looking to play Friday/Saturday about 2 hours from home to supplement income. Will start small @ 1/2 with 3k bankroll and see if i can make a go. Any advice appreciated, go team me....

Comments

I am not sure if driving 2 hours each way to and from the casino to play 1/2 NL will be a good strategy for supplementing your income. Let's assume for the sake of discussion that you found a cheap place to crash the night by the casino. And let's assume that you have an hourly win-rate of $15/hour at 1/2 NL. Let's also assume that you play 20 hours at the felt during FRI/SAT.

That means that you will expect to win $300 over 24 hours (20 hours on felt and 4 hours of driving). If you got a $20/night motel room and spent $40 worth of gas over this trip, then you only made $240 net profit over the weekend for a total of $10/hour.

As you can see, this is not a very good idea for supplementing your income. If your hourly 1/2 NL win-rate in the past isn't anywhere close to $15/hour, then you are definitely making a poor decision to try to supplement your income by playing 1/2 NL at a casino 2 hours away from you.

if your current income stream is enough to replenish your poker bankroll in case you go broke, then I recommend playing a higher limit for a better ROI. As long as your risk of ruin is non-existent, getting better in a more profitable game is a better investment for yourself imo.

If casino poker is two hours away, I'd give serious thought to running a quiet home game with a rake for some close friends a few nights a week. This is going to produce a much better income stream with less variance.

Trying to play poker at the lowest stakes with a limited bankroll and a real need to win to put food on the table is a recipe for disaster.

Yeah Gave it a shot, lost 800 300 on 2 coin flips
AJ v 33 my 33 in BB versus UTG that straddled every hand. the reason I moved in pre was he re-rasied a button that limped and tried push off his straddle with a re-raise.

later on straddle guy straddles for 5, 4 callers including me on button, he bets 20, I go all in. he tanks for 12 minutes (I've been showing down well...) we both have about 300 ish
he finally calls and shows AJ (sure now he has a hand) binks an A on the turn.

AK v QQ v 99 my QQ, 99 preflop the QQ was extra fun 99 in for 100 AK in for 300 me in for 300 flop 99xKx good night good game me.

so after some pondering I took the 1k from my experiment bought a Toshiba laptop (running windows 8) joined Bizspark program and started working on my C# skills while peddling my resume. Got slightly distracted by Swift and installing Yosemite on my backup hard drive for my Mac when apple announced it (shinny object syndrome) but now I'm back on task. It was fun (in a prison prom sort of way) while it lasted but now we're back on the horse looking to work for the man....

Also enrolled in the EDx free Unix Course (recommend that if you want to learn unix ) had some good news this week may have my first technical interview in 2 years, prospects look good. fingers crossed Prayers and wishes for good Karma welcome....

How old are you, what do you do for a living when working, wouldn't be better to save the 3k for regular living expenses? This seems like a poor decision to me. But I wish you all the best

What do I do for a living, I Look for a Job. Got laid off in 2012, been looking ever since. I've been taking classes to strengthen area's of my resume that are weak. Work on side projects to keep current and challenged, and write more cover letters than I ever thought I would need to.

Additonally unlike the last time I was looking for work 7 years ago, where I would go anywhere do anything, I'm really staying in areas of the country where I have friends or family within 2-3 hours of driving. Basically a box west of Pittsburg, south and east of Minneapolis and north of Cincinatti. I'm try to keep to work I enjoyed doing in the past and was good at. Mainly real-time small device/mobile development. I admit I've been bouncing from project to project but I've learned at every turn. I really need to focus on one area at a time, master it add it to the resume and move on. There is a chance for piecemeal work at my co-working site(think of co-working sites as a Gym but for people tryg to start businesses. instead of weights it workspaces, comfy chairs and internet connections) so I'm sharpening my C# skills enough to get proficient so I can get enough work to just pay bills and not live on savings, and still leave me time to job hunt and finish my iPhone app (I won't get rich but it will allow me to say,see what I can do to potential employers).

Sadly there is a lot web development work available but I'm not a web development guy. I don't enjoy it, I don't think much of it and I don't have much to contribute in that area.

don't do that. you can find better places to invest. Sounds like you have more going on with computers then you do at the table. You're play is better suited to NLH tournament, not a cash game. You should not be looking to ship it pre-flop and push small edges with a limited bankroll like that. I'm not saying don't raise with queens pre-flop, but you take a lot of skill out the game by jamming pre-flop. You are going to lose a lot of money of the long run playing like that just by the rake alone. If you are pushing coin flips you lose any time there is a rake. Bettor off playing stop and go, every now and then. Raise or three bet pre whatever, then jam on the flop minus an ace et cettera on the flop. Somewhat more of a tourney play than a cash game, but still a stronger move than all in preflop. Stop and go play is not well know at low limits, so it will very often take it down on the flop.

Going back to the job situation, I'm in IT. Do you have Java skills? If not, take a class or 2 and get it on your resume. I can recommend ed2go.com.

And maybe re-think the web stuff - its definitely where the market is.

I've been in the job market for the last year (fortunately while still holding a job, and knock on wood, I may have something solidified this week), and its IT related (but as a project manager), and one hard lesson I've learned is that today, the first pass on resumes is entirely done by key word search algorithms. So if companies are looking for Java say and its not on your resume you fail the key word search and your resume never gets looked at by a human being.

So having said that...I would take every computer class you can, even in the web world, and get every tech on your resume. Then ideally your resume starts getting past the key word search programs an into the hands of human being. Then they call you up and you can honestly say "I know x, y, z really well, and I've taken training in a, b, c".

I had to do this with my PMP (Project Management Certification). I was getting nowhere in my job search without it, regardless of how well my resume read. Fast forward through 5 months of training and studying, pass the exam, put in on my resume, and bam! tons more phone calls.

So look at every single tech in a job req that you don't have, and starting getting them on your resume. Its a royal pain in the ass, but the number 1 goal of your resume today is to beat the key word algorithms.

guys..people get over 75% of jobs through networks NOT by submitting resumes. put yourself on linked in right away. List all your skills attributes. also the #1 mistake people make with their resumes is listing what they have done and NOT what they have accomplished..

for example.. most people say:

worked on team to develop company intranet..

rather than:

Lead team on successful company intranet launch:

or another example:

project management at company x

as apposed to :

Managed project that came in on schedule and below cost that helped the company increase web traffic by x%

using power words in your resume and listing your accomplishments will get you pass the HR department.. happy hunting

Fwiw things are looking good. I may have a gig starting next week contract to hire. According to the contract firm I'm thumbs up and due to start next week, but till I get a badge and a paycheck I got nothing. Will post more when I move from contract to FTE

Good luck Fizz! I'm currently doing the contract to FTE thing too. One piece of info, may or may not be relevant, don't panic too much if they don't make you an FTE right when they promised. Mine was supposed to be 6 months (verbal statement nothing in writing), but they extended my contract another 6, and they've given me every indication that the FTE is coming.

Door to Door sales. When you finish laughing, read the rest. I'm not talking Fuller Brushes, just find something people will buy and go sell it. Start some kind of little business that can turn over money. I started with $25. a long time ago. I sold every thing. I got wiped out, I made a lot of money, I made a living. I read The Greatest Salesman in the World over ten times. I always kept money in my pocket.

Then I got serious about life. I read a little book called The Richest Man in Babylon. It gave a simple way of saving money. I always had money in my pocket, but that was it. Huge amounts of money had gone through my hands, but I always had what was in my pocket. I started using this simple system.

After a short while, I had more money saved up than I had in my pocket, a lot more. AND I still had the same little BR. I started buying houses, some to rent, some to resale. I bought a cabin cruiser. I started to vacation in the Islands.

If you saw me on the street, I am that same guy. Selling stuff. Small time entrepreneur making a little money each day. All you guys who play poker, can easily finish the game loaded if you just take a little of all the money that runs through your hands and put it to work somewhere else.

My story doesn't have perfect ending. I got married. :frown: I got away from the system. I got divorced. But I still have an income stream left from that little system I found in the RMIB. Young man, get some kind of hustle and start making money. You can play poker too.